The Death of Greek Life... You're Next

[GrkAlmSpclist]

Originally Posted by SWTXBelle

Oh, woe is me, if only we could solve the problem of declining pnms going through sorority recruitment, of chapters' numbers decreasing, of sorority membership numbers going down - WAIT! I almost forgot! There are record numbers of pnms, chapters are bursting at the seams, expansion(for both collegiate AND alumnae chapters) is occurring at an amazing rate . . . whew, I was worried there for a moment.

For your chapter that's great! But you cannot be so naive to think that every other chapter is booming with prosperity

[LillyPhi]

GrkAlmSpclist;You are correct sir - it IS a fear based click because you SHOULD be scared! Greek life may be growing at your campus but overall greek numbers are declining (I've done a lot of research on this so I know). My purpose here is to get a discussion going on why people need alumni relations;what your org is doing for alumni relations? Is it working? Are your undergrads getting in touch with the majority of alumni? Are you raising the money that you need to run your house? If you don't have an alumni relations program the answer is probably no!

When you say that the recruitment numbers overall are decreasing, you are referring to just NIC Orgs.? or both NIC & NPC Orgs.? Also, the decrease in recruitnment number is it similar to that of the "Rush Recession" of the 1990's, which did in fact many GLO's (mostly fraterntities) experienced a large decline in recruitment numbers. You need to be more specific in your theory.

[SWTXBelle]

I'm not talking about just my chapter - I am talking about NPC sororities OVERALL. Yes, there are struggling chapters, but "Greek Life" as represented by the NPC is doing better than ever, thankyouverymuch.

[sugar and spice]

Originally Posted by GrkAlmSpclist

Here is an article that I think will enlighten you - it talks about the shrinking of Greek life around the nation and is backed by a good mix of facts and opinions http://www.smudailycampus.com/news/t...ternity-system

The article you posted is from 2005. That's almost ten years ago, dude. It's not a good indication of what is happening today. The mid-'90s through the mid-2000s saw a decline in the size of the Greek system; since then it's been growing exponentially. Not only is it growing, but on most campuses, it's either at an all-time high or at a close second to the all-time membership high (the '80s being our last big upswing). If anybody's sources are telling them that Greek life is waning, they need new sources.

Membership on my campus now is close to twice what it was when I attended (around 2005). You can see that trend on campuses around the nation. And if we survived that downswing (not to mention the 1970s where membership at a lot of schools was 10-20 percent of what it is now!), I'm sure we can survive another, whenever it comes.

You keep saying "It's nice that Greek life on your campus is growing, but you can't assume that's happening on every campus." Actually, we can:

"Nationwide, membership is up, growing a bit more than 15 percent from 2008 to 2011, to 285,543 undergraduates, according to the National Panhellenic Conference." - the New York Times

Not sure how it gets more complicated than that.

[ASTalumna06]

If the OP had spent even 5 minutes on Greekchat over the last week, he would have seen that NPC numbers across the country are booming. But apparently he's only interested in reading articles from 10 years ago.

[FSUZeta]

OP, the folks who are responding to you are all alumni who are involved with and support their organizations, so you are preaching to the choir. Just stop. Church is over.

[DrPhil]

The OP either listened to NPR this week (or last week?) or was one of the guests on the NPR show. It was an interesting show.

[AZTheta]

I listened to it (Diane Rehm show). Here's the link to the transcript.

[DrPhil]

Originally Posted by AZTheta

I listened to it (Diane Rehm show). Here's the link to the transcript.

Thanks.

[DrPhil]

It was an interesting discussion and I adore Diane Rehm. It was apparent they were speaking primarily based on NPC and NIC. It was a narrow perception of Greek Life and of the impact on people's lives and communities.

NPR also discussed Masons this week:
http://www.npr.org/2014/08/27/342209...ockettsnprfeed